Branded medication is a rip off!

[EveryDayIsADuvetDay]

I think I have a cold, I don't usually bother, but decided to but some day and night tablets to shift it quickly.
Looked online - brand leaders were £7-£8 in boots/super drug etc, and their own brands about half that.
I decided to look in Tesco because it was closer - £1.75, exactly the same active ingredients.

People must be crazy to spend three to four tines as much for the branded ones! (and TBH I'd probably have got much the same effect from paracetamol)

YABU - you get what you pay for, stick to the brand leaders
YANBU - save cash and go for the supermarket clones

• Type: wouldn’t make a huge difference

Placebo effect of branded stuff must only work if you're not a cynical, bargain-buyer scientist like me though...

@Frickssake

Sorry to slightly de rail the thread. BUT why is threadworm medication SO expensive? When DD was in nursery we all had to take the medication and I couldn't see an alternative to ( OVEX?)

I went to buy OVEX a couple of years ago in my local chemist and they insisted it went through the minor ailments scheme so we didn't have to pay! I was a bit annoyed because I was happy to pay for it

@wynturphelle did you used to give the patient the branded medication if they demanded it?

Sorry that sounded like I was having a go because i wanted to pay and the past was about the cost. I really wasn't. What I actually meant was ask your chemist to do the same!

@LivingMyBestLife2020

I inject a medication weekly, at no cost to myself. It originally cost £450 a shot. After the patent expired a bio similar was created for £150. The original medication then reduced to £200 a shot. Madness as it was the same and had an identical effect

Manufacturing costs for drugs can be small but the research costs can be enormous. I believe that they use the patent period a buffer where they can charge high prices to recoup some of the costs. Once the patent expires other manufacturers make copies without the development costs.

@Wynturphelle

I'd agree but I used to work in a dispensary. Some patients would only be happy with a specific brand of their meds despite the increased cost to the NHS. I guess formulations may differ slightly?

I'd agree for things like paracetamol, but some epilepsy drugs are not supposed to be substituted for another version as even the minutest difference can cause them to be less effective. So if you'd tried to dispense the generic version to me, yes I'd have kicked up a fuss.

Have you only just realised this?

This has been a thing like, forever. I thought it was common knowledge that generic painkillers etc were much cheaper than branded. I always ask for the cheapest generic, because I'm a cheapskate.

For over the counter medicine, yes always compare the product number. It's printed outside on the packaging.

It's true that some brands have different fillers or coatings. Sometimes the amount of the active ingredient is less / more.
All this is is noted in the product number.

As for cold & flu remedies, just use bog standard painkillers. If you need to be "awake" have some sweets with e numbers - Sunset yellow E110 is known to be brilliant! As in colouring in Squash or lemon flavour cold remedies.

Another one wondering how you've only just realised this . Is this your first time shopping by yourself?

If it ever comes back, you should start watching shop well for less or eat well for less, it will blow your mind.

Money saving expert have a good article on this.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/team-blog/2015/03/buying-medicine-generics-can-be-up-to-85-cheaper/

One of the biggest savings can be for anti histamines, which many people take routinely either in the summer for hay fever or all year round for other allergies. A pack of a few branded tablets is a few quid in the supermarket, or you can get 500 for £10-15 online.

Unbranded painkillers just don't work when I get headaches. Could well be the placebo effect though.

However, there is a difference in taste with unbranded foods And I could do a blind taste on that one.

Sometimes it's not just the active ingredients that make the difference.

I have a beclamethasone inhaler. In one version the propellant is quite acrid and makes me cough. The old branded version never did. (20 years since it went generic though).

I had a patient call up in a tizz the other day saying she had been prescribed the wrong contraceptive pill, had to get her to read out the drug names and amounts and explain about brand names. I mean, she was quite young so fair enough if you don't know this, especially as GPs often prescribe by brand.

I am usually totally pro switching brands out for generics or other cheaper brands but my preparedness for that torrent extend to contraceptive pills.

I was asked to switch to rigevidon from microgynon. The active ingredients were identical so I agreed. I then went through several months of spotting, investigations for the spotting etc etc until eventually I asked to be put back on microgynon and the whole thing went away. I had been on it for a decade before and have for another 7 years since and never had spotting.

I assume it is something in the coating or the cocrystals impacting absorption but obviously I thought it was just me and something wrong with me because the active ingredients were the same so how could it be doing something different?!

I have no idea why people get the branded stuff especially for paracetamol and ibuprofen. Paracetamol and caffeine, or ibuprofen lysine can be harder to find the generic versions of, but they usually have them in savers.

The only branded thing I do buy rather than generic, is the soluble solpadeine max. It tastes better than supermarket/chemist own versions of soluble cocodamol in my opinion.

I just look at the ingredients. Mostly save a lot that way (except Calpol - the kids don't like any other brands).

I was so happy when the patent for Nurofen ended and you could buy generic ibuprofen. It saved me a fortune.

Yanbu . I buy cheaper too. They all have to follow the same guidelines so the most expensive really isn't better than the cheapest.

@EveryDayIsADuvetDay

I think I have a cold, I don't usually bother, but decided to but some day and night tablets to shift it quickly. Looked online - brand leaders were £7-£8 in boots/super drug etc, and their own brands about half that. I decided to look in Tesco because it was closer - £1.75, exactly the same active ingredients.

People must be crazy to spend three to four tines as much for the branded ones! (and TBH I'd probably have got much the same effect from paracetamol)

YABU - you get what you pay for, stick to the brand leaders
YANBU - save cash and go for the supermarket clones

There's a lot of sophistication in the delivery methods.

Tesco dihorrea tablets work but they don't work anywhere near as quick as the imodium instants

"I'd agree for things like paracetamol, but some epilepsy drugs are not supposed to be substituted for another version as even the minutest difference can cause them to be less effective. So if you'd tried to dispense the generic version to me, yes I'd have kicked up a fuss."

Also drugs companies have agreements with countries like ours that they will sell to us at a higher price so they can sell to poorer nations at a subsidised reduced price or a you buy x doses we donate y doses.

BigFatLiar is correct. The cost of bringing a new medication to market is absolutely staggering. To be fair, running clinical trials brings huge benefits to the nhs, not just financial ones either. If drug companies couldn't hang on to the patent for a few years, nobody would bother to invent anything new.

Literally the only branded item I buy is gin.

Mostly I’m with you.

It’s not always only about the active ingredients though. I did have a bad reaction to the colouring in the coating of a generic tablet once when the manufacturer changed the colour. I went onto the branded one and it was fine- although if there had been a generic one in the right colour in might have been ok too.

@Oysterbabe

Literally the only branded item I buy is gin.

that counts as medication

The inactive ingredients are often different and certain ingredients can cause issues in some people unfortunately.